BILL WILLHITE with Al Clauser’s Oklahoma Outlaws – BACM CD 566

(May new release, No. 2). AL CLAUSER & His Oklahoma Outlaws BACM CD 594. Guitarist, songwriter and bandleader Al Clauser is reputed to be originator of the term “Western Swing”, using it as early as 1928, several years before it became mainstream popular with the likes of Bob Wills and Milton Brown. Clauser and his band had popular radio shows in the 1930s (WHO in Des Moines, Iowa) and then in Tulsa, Oklahoma on KTUL Radio from 1942. Our CD features mainly transcription recordings including several outstanding instrumentals. Al and his Oklahoma Cowboys were also featured as session players on our Bill Willhite CD 566.

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Price: USD $22.00

Bill Willhite was the rich voiced lead singer and guitarist on the one of the very first BACM issues (BACM 02, released in 2002 as Jack Savage & His Cowboys) and we have at last managed to track down enough good quality recordings for a second collection. 20 transcriptions recorded in California, mostly backed with Al Clauser’s crack band The Oklahoma Cowboys during the period when Hillhite and the band were filming with Gene Autry. Plus a few later tracks from the mid ‘40s. Nice mix of Western, popular and old timey songs – from this talented and once popular performer who is undeservedly overlooked by the country history books.

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Price: USD $22.00

In the mid 1930s a superb cowboy group “Jack Savage & His Cowboys” visited Europe, were regular broadcasters on Radio Luxemburg and Radio Normandy and cut some great sides in London (12 sides on the CD including several excellent narrations). Jack Savage was the group’s announcer and spokesman but the lead singer / guitarist was Bill Willhite accompanied by Ted Grant on ‘hillbilly fiddle’. Willhite had recorded with several line ups back in the US, late 1920s and early 1930s under several names, including The Peaceful Valley Folk – six 1935 recordings here and ‘Billy Brown & His Cowboys” (four 1936 tracks). We hope to in the future collect enough tracks for a further Bill Willhite compilation, a distinctive rich voice. (In July 2017 we finally got around to it, issuing 24 of Bill’s transcriptions recorded in July 1939 on our CD 566, BILL WILLHITE, With Al Clauser’s Oklahoma Outlaws).

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Price: USD $22.00